Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Given New $310.00 Price Target at Robert W. Baird

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) had its target price dropped by Robert W. Baird from $340.00 to $310.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "neutral" rating on the electronics maker's stock. Robert W. Baird's target price points to a potential upside of 18.26% from the stock's current price.

AYI has been the subject of several other reports. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $330.60.

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Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI traded up $0.16 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $262.13. The stock had a trading volume of 153,125 shares, compared to its average volume of 277,032. The company has a market cap of $8.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The business has a fifty day moving average of $301.88 and a 200 day moving average of $304.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $3,849,000. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $232,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 213.4% during the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 5,040 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,388,000 after acquiring an additional 3,432 shares during the last quarter. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $19,703,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 7,642 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $2,105,000 after purchasing an additional 835 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

About Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands, Inc provides lighting, lighting controls, building management system, location-aware applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL); and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). The ABL segment provides commercial, architectural, and specialty lighting solutions, as well as lighting controls and components for various indoor and outdoor applications under the A-Light, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, Cyclone, Dark to Light, eldoLED, Eureka, Gotham, Healthcare Lighting, Holophane, Hydrel, Indy, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOCWiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch.